


The Minutes Don't Stop

by coslyons



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Ace Fjord, Asexual Character, Dubious Consent, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-20 23:25:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16565111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coslyons/pseuds/coslyons
Summary: “You do what you have to,” Caleb had said, and so Fjord did.





	The Minutes Don't Stop

**Author's Note:**

> My friend and I were talking about our ace!Fjord headcanon, and then I got sad for him.  
> Title from Richard Siken's "The Torn-Up Road"  
> Do take note that this is a fairly intensely dub-con fic. Please take care of yourselves.

It’s not like she made him do it.

“You do what you have to,” Caleb had said, and so Fjord did. He went downstairs to the captain’s quarters clutching the vial of acid Nott had given him. They needed information, and Fjord was in the best position to get it. 

Avantika stood on the balcony outside her room, silhouetted against the setting sun. Water snaked around her body, curling around her forearms and thighs. He looked away.

Fjord couldn’t look at her again until she wrapped herself in a silk robe, and even then the silk went nearly transparent on her damp skin. Avantika poured wine with a twist of the wrist and a suggestive eyebrow. They drank, and Fjord couldn’t help but try to taste poison in the wine. He swirled it around in his mouth and then swallowed.

They talked for a while, dancing around secrets and conspiracies. Avantika said, “Vandrin,” and Fjord’s heart leapt to his throat. He did what he was best at: lying, redirecting, hiding. It wasn’t good enough, and she caught him out, left him wrong-footed and anxious. Avantika caught him out in a lie, and so he gave her a truth. He gave her a shipwreck. 

Avantika promised him amazing things, and gave him the same look she’s been giving him for the past several days.  _ Do what you have to _ .

This is just business. They’re sealing an arrangement, that’s all.

Fjord took her hand and walked around her desk. He leaned in, and Avantika reached up to pull him closer. The kiss was not gentle, and Fjord felt like he was swimming in deep water. Avantika rushed over him like a tidal wave. She pushed him down on her bed and climbed over him. Fjord’s body sparked without any input from his brain. He still had an instinctive fear of drowning, but he let it happen. 

Her body weight pressed down against his hips as she moved on top of him. Avantika dragged her nails down his chest, and the salt water trapped underneath them got into the scrapes and burned. Fjord gasped from the pain of it, and Avantika seemed to think he was gasping in shared ecstasy. She pressed against him harder, called him partner, called him chosen, called him lover. Avantika bit a kiss into his neck, and the sharp edge of her canine tooth scraped against the pulse in his throat. Animal fear swept through him, but he let it happen. 

Avantika looked at him and saw the power of Uka’toa under his skin. That’s what she wanted, not him; Fjord is just a mirror. 

He walks out of her room marked and aching. His skin feels like it fits him wrong, like getting sand caught under your clothes. He didn't enjoy it necessarily, but he didn’t say no. He let it happen. 

“Sleep well with your bad decisions,” Caduceus says, and Fjord’s body thrums with shame. He suddenly wishes he could wash himself, get the smell of her off of his skin.

He doesn’t sleep, and when he does, his dreams are as dark as the ocean in a storm. This time, though, the only eyes he sees are Avantika’s. 

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone in TM9 is ace except Beau, and that's a fact y'all


End file.
